Industry with no know

I’m not getting dragged in to the Idol mass debate, I’m done,  I’ll wait until they finally arrive at a decision regarding the new judges. I thought Tyler and Lopez had been confirmed but apparently not. Actually I’m suprissd at myself more than anything for being taken in by all the furore, I’m not that type of guy. I’m a cynical old fool when it comes to the record industry. That’s how I survived, I saw it as fun first and foremost. I thought it was a total hoot that someone was going to pay me to indulge in my hobby. I thought, if it lasted 6 months it would be a great six months and I could tell my grandchildren, but it lasted over thirty years. A lot of fun and a load of hard work, but what’s work when you’re having fun?

There were a good few of us from that era did it proud though, we LOVED making a living out of a hobby. It isn’t hard to get up in the morning when you love your job. There was no such thing as Monday morning…… Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, bring it on. Midday or Midnight, we were there. We believed in the dream because we made the dream a reality. If someone gave me a great record to promote I felt it my duty to tell others, and what an honor it was. I couldn’t wait to run round the country and barge in to every radio station and enthuse. I had people just as receptive in radio and television, they wanted good tunes and I had shit loads of them! My belief became their belief.

Island Records was a pretty damn fine place to start, Bob Marley, Steve Winwood, John Martyn, Robert Palmer and then of course U2. It could have been worse because there were still a few labels thinking shit worked. Well it didn’t. In fact I’d ask people if they ever gave me a shit record what did they expected me to do with it. And that included you Mr Cowell !  Power Rangers, Zig and Zag and some bus conductor from Coventry. And a dreadful all girl band from Australia who came and went in around a week, thank God. Reminds me, it’s nice when crap doesn’t sell. He thought they’d be the next Spice Girls….more like The Lice Girls. Good bloke though, shit taste in music but a good bloke. He senses a hit and makes it happen in just enough time before the public gets wise to it. By then he’s robbed them of all their cash and it’s on to the next. He’s Robin Hood.

It never ceases to amaze me how a music industry for so long thinks things are always going too be the next so and so. Pray tell 40 years later where are the next Led Zeppelin, the next Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Neil Young or Bob Dylan. They don’t exist, great talent that lasts is unique, you  have the dross that filters through but it never lasts. We all get dog shit on our shoes but we flick it off once we know it’s there. There is a dictionary for the word talent, please use it.

I’m still a believing kind of guy, what was that all time famous karaoke song Journey gave us, ‘Don’t stop believing?’  Too many times we’ve had the midnight train going nowhere and still the music industry assumes the public are thick and will buy what they are told to. Well the public just woke up, shit doesn’t sell. Back in the day the lovable Monkees told us, ‘I’m a Believer.’ Let’s hang on to that notion and believe in real talent, let’s encourage it to come through. But can we please have some help from those who are in a position to help? OK, I expected as much.

OK TM time, we’re back in Time Module. Let’s go back to Elvis, to The Beatles to a whole host of relevant exciting bands and artists that got everyone on the same playing field. We all needed music in our lives because it enriched all our  lives. It made them happy, it made us happy. It sent them to work happy it sent them in to relationships happy. It got them paid and it got them laid.

I am about to enter a very noisy time about the music industry, trust me I know me as well as anyone. There are things that need debating and thank you Mr and Mrs Internet for giving me that platform to vent. Why sit around in music industry conference and debate it amongst yourselves, what the hell will that solve.? You got it wrong for so long now and you’re still getting it wrong. Let Joe and Jospehine public have their say.

If it’s anything else and it’s gone past it’s sell by date they remove it from the shelf, here they just repackage it and force feed it us again and again! Plenty more to come but for now, I am at peace.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, record companies, View from the room, Island Records, music industry, Record business, Simon Cowell

Where are you taking us now, music biz?

So there I was all settled  down last night just checking out Facebook before slumping on the couch and up popped this instant message. It was from Sam and it said ‘ What makes a great debut album.’ One hell of a question I have to say but what an unbelievable topic to explore. What does make a great debut album indeed?

I could pontificate endlessly but let’s face it, and I make no pretense here, times change. Understatement of the year I might add. Maybe we should give 1967/1968 as an answer , what an amazing period, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, The Band, Captain Beefheart, Traffic and The Doors. Not bad for great debut albums and all in just under two years, eh?

It’s not just about having a great debut album, it’s about being an artist and having greatness in you.  When I was growing up so many of the people I admired aspired to greatness and if you were a fan you knew it was only a matter of time before they reached that.  You bought their album because maybe you’d seen them live, you’d heard them on the radio and you liked them. If you bought the album and there were a few fillers what the hell, we’ve all been there, correct? But more than anything you believed in them and they too believed in you, the fan. They didn’t wan to short change you, they chose this path to earn their living and they felt it necessary to give value for money. They were hungry and they were committed, they put their heart and soul in to it. And not only that, right through the sixites and up until the nineties the record company was committed too. They would send you back in to the studio if they thought what you brought them was unsatisfactory. They signed you because they knew you could do it and if what they heard was substandard then, go do it again. It’ was a bit like being kept behind at school .

Labels were proud of what they released and they didn’t want anything substandard on their roster either . I wasn’t alone in collecting records back then on Island and Electra. I knew that most of the time I’d like what I heard. They set standards and if it was a new band and it was on one of those labels I’d be the first in to the store to listen to it. I was excited. labels got excited and the artist was excited to hear what the media had to say about them. They were prepared to be judged.

Nowadays it’s all changed. You could say no one gives a fuck but naturally that would be a generalization. There are some labels that genuinely care but there are a bunch sticking stuff out to suit a demographic knowing they can sell X amount and far more importantly, not lose their job. It’s about safety, if they can’t or don’t know how to market it then they won’t sign it because if they do they are leaving themselves exposed. It beggars the question, do we have the talent at the labels that we once had. I’m bound to say no but just work it out for yourselves, are you getting what you want or are you getting what they think you deserve? Is it a discerning audience, I think not. People growing up don’t really know what they are missing. If you’re on TV then they think you’re famous. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a thousand times, YOU’RE NOT. You’re notorious.  Rapists, murderers, terrorists and child molesters are on the television, are those twats famous? Though even I wouldn’t tag today’s ‘stars’ quiet that badly.

For me it’s a massive point of debate. Where does the hunger come from now, where is the desire to dazzle. What does the artist look for when they deliver their work. It’s a thousand questions and it’s a million answers. I’ll be back to discuss much more on this. It doesn’t seem right we stand back and let it happen but sadly we’re mostly powerless. The people who need to care don’t and those don’t never will. Feels like we’re in a minority and the force feeding to the masses has turned us in to arena addicts.

Where are our gladiators when we need them?

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, record companies, Risk, creativity, Island Records, record companies

Moving,shaking and anticipating

And so to new beginnings. Happily settled in to my new place I feel alive. Unpacking was easy, I gave nearly everything I had away. I think I’m going through my Brian Eno minimalist period and yes, less is definitely more. Or more or less. I think it’s the perfect inspiration for what I’m doing now and no excuse for not to getting back to writing. In fact once the book comes out ( 2 to 3 weeks now methinks) I’m ready to get on with part two! I did a presentation in Tampa a few weeks ago on 24 Hour Party People and it was only afterwards that I realized there’s nothing on Factory in the book! Nothing about the madness and the mayhem, absolutely nothing but in the general context of the book, lessons learned from rock and roll maybe Factory didn’t teach me anything! A lesson in how not to run a business that’s for sure! 

I remember some of the great moments at Factory and the look on their faces when their records started to take off. Tony Wilson’s look of utter amazement thinking ‘How did that happen?’ That excitement sadly was the beginning of the end. We all knew they never should have moved to an office with such an insane overhead but you couldn’t tell them anything. That was the beauty of it. It wasn’t an arrogance, Factory did what Factory did and for a while it worked wonderfully. And we all loved it. It was a time and it was a place and I loved nearly every minute of it. I say nearly because I don’t think I really loved it when the collapse came and I was owed a horrendous amount of money. My immediate concern then was how I was going to keep myself afloat and my own staff in a job. Factory went, I cashed in some insurance policies in bought a barge, went off to Bali and Lombok for a holiday (not on the barge I hasten to add), shoved some money in to my company, TMP dusted myself down and careered on for another ten amazing years. It’s the things that seem the most daunting at the time that make you stronger, more resilient. When the dust finally settled I thought if I could survive that I could survive anything. 

Factory was more a way of life, not to dissimilar to Island Records in some ways in that it was a bunch of people putting records out they liked, records they’d be proud to have in their own record collection. They thrived on loving what they did. It wasn’t a job, music and records was their hobby. Everything was so very different back then where  the media would respond to quality and respect what those pioneer labels were trying to do. They would join in their success. They weren’t hell bent on creating trends for people to follow they just loved it when they heard something original, something that moved them enough to write about it.

And we went from that to journalists trying to make a name for themselves by being controversial and writing reviews that would get them noticed rather than the music. And quite often reviews that you couldn’t understand. I’d find myself reading stuff and thinking ‘Does he like this’ ( I say he because it always seemed to be guys writing all the ‘look at me, aren’t I great’ pieces.’

And so change started to happen and the music business began to change………..and my God did it change! What did happen seems to be a daily conversation with the people I talk to. We are all older and more reflective, we look back and think ‘Wow what a roller coaster of a ride.’ Over the coming weeks I’ll share some of those thoughts and look back. Should be fun. Main thing is I”M BACK!

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, record companies, View from the room, 24 Hour Party People, Factory Records, Island Records, tony michaelides, tony wilson

Sweet little mystery no more

I woke this morning expecting to see some replies to my e-mails from friends and colleagues…..I log on, nothing! I grumbled to my mother who is staying with me at present while cursing the internet. Bless, she offered to take me in to town to see if I could buy the internet….

The cable guy, Verizon Fios guy to be exact appeared with new router, a tweak here, an extra box there and we are back on. I log on and there before me a bunch of e-mails from my old cohorts at Island Records with the header ‘John Martyn 1948 to 2009’ and the inevitable news that he has died. Maybe some of you here in America might not have heard of him but John was a giant, I’d like to say a gentle giant and at times he was, at other times a ferocious beast. Sadly at times the demon alcohol took over and he was erratic and scary. Whichever John Martyn turned up he was always a total genius, a brilliant guitarist and a fantastic songwriter. If you don’t know him you’ll know Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Dave Gimour and others who played with him or recorded his songs and their versions of ‘Sweet little mystery’ and ‘May you never’ John Martyn’s songs were timeless songs. Sadly another one gone who seemed to be around as long as you had been into music and collecting records.

John Martyn had many music biz friends who were also fans,he was very much admired. A rare talent and another one who won’t ever be replaced. Like many others I am saddened by his loss yet not totally suprised, he ravaged his body and it just eventually gave up. Just a few years ago he had a leg amputated and though not entirely sure this may have been alcohol abuse related. He joked about it. His cause of death was cited as pneumonia, how much of anymore could his body have taken, his immune system must have packed up years ago.

John Martyn had demons but a sensitivity in his songwriting that you don’t often see. ‘Some keep diaries’ he said….’I write songs’ Chris Blackwell, the guy who first signed him was a good friend and originally could not release his ‘Grace and Danger’ album as he found it too upsetting, he had known John and Beverley both. John pleaded with him as it as a carthatic release for him, he needed it……Chris eventually obliged. It was a moving piece of music and as always with John Martyn it cut straight from the heart. Nothing about John Martyn was ever safe…… yet always sacred.

I worked with him in the seventies and eighties. He made me laugh and he made me cry. He would go in to a radio station and leave us all gasping for breath with some mindblowing guitar and another time he would sit outside in my car refusing to move and refusing to let me take him in for a pre arranged interview. Another time he announced he didn’t want to do anything in Scotland and wanted to go see his dad who still lived there in Glasgow. Testing times for an embryonic plugger. How do you explain to someone sat in reception that your artist will not budge. How can you answer ‘Why’?….and if I was to confront him and tell him not to be silly I was terrified of the consequences, I put up and shut up. Driving him in my car once from one radio station to another his accent changed, we hit Glasgow and he became Glasweigen! We did the interview and he wanted a drink, it was 10-30am and I was petrified. Working with John Martyn could be hard but at other times wonderful. He could be so warm and friendly too, delighted to see you.

I remember once when he played Manchester Polytechnic, he walked out on stage blind drunk clad in great coat, slided his guitar alongside his amp took two steps to the side and promptly puked up. Once over he dragged his shirt sleeve across his mouth, took two steps forward and took off in to song like nothing had ever happened! Some hapless character, mop in hand slipped on to the stage having been assigned puke retival duties. The set was blistering.

John Martyn is now gone but won’t be forgotten. Along with Bob Marley and Robert Palmer the mainstay of early Island is disappearing but with it too come fond memories of what made this the greatest label ever…. the people. Memories too of Martyn’s press officer for so many years who dealt with his erratic behaviour so well, the much loved Rob Partridge who slowly slipped away and left us just before Christmas.

For all of us who were there so many things remind us of all the good times we shared. It takes every kinda people.

Don’t worry ’bout a thing……..every little thing gonna be alright.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, PR, record companies, Chris Blackwell, Island Records, John Martyn, Rob Partidge

The passing of a remarkable man

I just received a call from Neil with the very sad news that one of our former Island colleagues, Rob Partridge had passed away. Rob was one of the finest human beings ever to have graced the music industry and an engine room giant, yet his greatest quality was that he was an ‘all round good bloke.’ There will be many people in many places mourning yet at the same time fondly remembering someone who made an impact on everyone. I’m not alone in saying I was proud to have known him.

Rob had many qualities not least of all his humility. Most of you reading this won’t know who he was and that’s a shame. He was a hugely talented PR blessed with remarkable communication skills and someone adept at identifying and nurturing talent. I can imagine the impact his death will have had on so many artists from U2 to Tom Waits from just reading the tributes Johnny Marr and Marianne Faithful have already offered. Marianne said he was one of the greatest men she had ever met, Billboard referred to him as a PR giant. Words could never serve to do him justice, he was a very special human being.

Rob was the first person to spot the talent that was U2 and gave his employer Island Records the heads up, yet he was never one to gloat over it. I often wonder if U2 would have gone on to become what they are today without Island and especially without Rob Partridge. He had a unique ability when it came to dealing with artists, he took time to understand them and they in turn loved working with him.

The last time I saw him was maybe 10 years ago yet but when I read the tributes and e-mails and see his picture it’s like I’m there in his front room and he’s defending his dedication to Queens Park Rangers like only Rob could……and always there at his side his wonderful and loving wife Tina. A remarkable half of a remarkable whole.

I’m not the only one who will miss him and look forward to the day someone walks on to a stage to receive the Rob Partridge Lifetime Achievement Award.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, PR, View from the room, Island Records, Johnny Marr, Marianne Faithful, Rob Partridge, U2

Island daze

I miss Island Records but I don’t miss record companies, Island was in a class of it’s own, its a tough one to describe…..you really did have to be there. Now I’m standing from the rooftops and shouting, ‘I was there, tough luck if you weren’t!’

My friend Neil met up with Chris Blackwell, Island Record’s founder last week and it got us talking about those times yet again. There aren’t too many moments in anyone’s career that trigger off the most vivid of memories….. but the merest mention of Island life and we’re away! I was equally as pleased to hear that the two of them had done just the same!…….check out Neil’s blog for more about CB and Island at Neilstorey.blogspot.com

You meet a lot of people in the music industry and you meet a multitude of stars. For me I not only met them but I worked with U2, Bowie, The Police, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Bob Marley…..the list goes on, but when I talk about Island my only regret is that I never met Chris Blackwell. It was probably circumstance more than anything, he commuted between Jamaica, London and New York and I didn’t cover any radio stations there…… I don’t think he was avoiding me! That being said he played a huge role in my career, firstly as a fan of Island music and then professionally.

I can talk about growing up at Island and learning my trade as a promotions guy because I was left alone to do it, left to make my own mistakes. It was much the same script I gave anyone who came to work for me once I set up my own promotion company……go do it, if you fuck up there isn’t anything I can’t pull you out of. Make your own mistakes, I made plenty but they’re exclusive to me! If they made mistakes but identified them and recovered from them they proved themselves to be the right choice. Looking at the people who came and went I think my choices were good…..they went on to become radio presenters, form their own promotion companies, management companies…. and my intern went on to manage Coldplay! I think I emulated Chris Blackwell’s A and R policy, go with your gut instinct and believe in the people you work with. He was the Lion King, he lived in me!

In the early days Chris Blackwell was the A and R department. He found someone, he talked to them, told them how great he thought they were and how he thought he could help their career and boom…they’re signed. Prime example Bob Marley, it worked for both parties. Marley would never have been recognized and gain the popularity he did without Blackwell’s guidance and likewise CB would not have been able to attract new acts to his label if he hadn’t done such a remarkable job with Marley.

He needed to stand proud and look at what had been achieved and build his label from there.That’s the secret of a good record man. I won’t harp on about artist development, scroll down there is plenty of that but what I will say is how vital it is that you have a creative mind and an understanding for what you sign. It isn’t just the music it’s ‘can I work with these people, do we both have the same vision?’ Though Chris didn’t physically sign U2 and it’s been well documented by the man himself, it took just one meeting with them and manager Paul McGuinness to convince him of what his colleagues at Island were saying…..this lot are special. Rob Partridge and Neil Storey had worked long and hard in the early days until Nick ‘the captain’ Stewart stuck the piece of paper under them that said..come join this fabulous place that employs me.

Still to this day I think it was the perfect marriage. No label would have persisted in supporting U2 the way Chris Blackwell and Island did back then and certainly no label would have dared not to interfere. They owed the label so much in the first few years that most people would have stepped in and said ‘Oi, stop pissing my money away, this is how it’s going to be.’ Island knew how to grow with their artists…… through relationships based on mutual respect.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Journey Through The Past, Managing Creativity, record companies, Risk, Add new tag, Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell, Island Records, Neil Storey, Nick Stewart, Rob Partridge, U2

One man was an Island

Next year marks the 50th celebration of Island Records and while that in itself is worth celebrating it makes me wonder what exactly is being celebrated. It also triggers off very found memories of Island 25 and the time when Island really was Island and it’s founder Chris Blackwell stood proudly at the helm. That was a wonderfully festive time celebrated by the coolest TV show of it’s generation ‘The Tube’…. Oh how we danced. What made it special was it was celebrated by the people who had played a part in it’s success. For me, and I doubt I am alone in my opinion it ceased to be Island the day it’s founder Chris Blackwell sold it.

It always seems weird and somehow wrong when people retain a name that rightfully they have no claim to, other than they paid for it. Why in fact is it still called Island at all? It irritates me really because Chris Blackwell has nothing to do with anybody that they sign, it’s an insult to his legacy. They could sign a pile of shit and it would sour his reputation…..probably not but you get my drift. I doubt they have a ‘no crap clause in the contract….we’ve paid for it, it’s ours , we’ll do as we see fit. Island Records was his vision and his dream and now it’s a corporate brand that doesn’t make it much different to any other label…..except that they are using the name.

‘ I am just a dreamer and you are just a dream’… Neil Young ‘Like a hurricane’

To all of us that worked there we were dreamers and Chris Blackwell’s Island was our dream.

One man was an Island back then and we were all happy to be shipwrecked there. Chris Blackwell was our Robinson Crusoe and we were all his men/women Fridays. He saved us from EMI,Warner, Sony(CBS as it was back then) eating us up!

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, record companies, CBS, Chris Blackwell, EMI, Island Records

Back catalogue, the life blood of the record business

Back catalogue has always been the very soul of the record business, great artists make great records and great records sell….. and like any art form, it doesn’t date. Over the years new generations discover them and they continue to sell, it’s a never ending circle…or at least you thought it was. While great artists are timeless record companies are time sensitive, they no longer give their artists the time to produce those great pieces of work. They have created a climate by melting our icebergs and letting our lifeblood float away, the back catalogue is drifting aimlessly. As new acts were being developed by the labels they always had a steady roster of artists with back catalogue that would keep ticking away. At some time somwhere in the world someone would be buying one of these records, and it just kept going.

There is now a real danger of there being no back catalogue in the future, or that the back catalogue we have today will still be the same back catalogue of the future. Can we seriously expect that Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse or Nickelback to sell in thirty years like Led Zeppelin, The Pink Floyd or Dylan?

Back catalogue and a great artist roster is also what helps attract the best of the new artists to a label. Island Records for three decades had a plethora of acts like Free, Traffic, Bob Marley, U2, Steve Winwood etc who would build the foundations to attract these new acts. How many independent acts over the years would have given anything to be on Factory and the same label as Joy Division and New Order, or 4AD and The Pixies? And those labels would only want acts who were worthy to stand alongside those giants. The artists had integrity and hadn’t become some record company’s puppet jumping to their every tune. They were confident in their ability to produce the best they could, the label left them to it and in return those acts left the promoting in the capable hands of their label. The right people doing the right jobs with the least interference, a harmonious relationship and a solid base from which to build.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, record companies, 4AD, back catalogue, Factory Records, Island Records

Mistakes and how the times they were a changin’

What I remember from when I first started in the music business back in the 70’s was that record companies had ‘record people’ who worked there. I was fortunate enough to work for two labels who were run by three such people, Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert..the two guys who’s initials together made up A and M and Chris Blackwell the man who started the legendary Island Records, always my favorite label.

Island was my first outing in to the world of promotion and what a great place for an initiation. Everyone who worked there from the front desk at reception to the ladies in the canteen lived and breathed music….for them it was the best job they could have. Although I had first hand knowledge of both Island and A and M I made a great many friends at other labels and they too were there for the right reason.

When I got my first job the guy who employed me, Ray Cooper wanted to know if I was interested in music before he even interviwed me. We discussed what the job entailed, obviously but we compared notes and discovered we had similar tastes. I was used to talking music because I did it most of the time with my friends, it came naturally.Maybe that interest was what swung it for me, got me the job, after all I had no experience in selling but I had enthusiasm and passion driven by a love of music rather than a love for selling.

I think where the record companies benefited was through the experience of these people. They knew what to do with artists, they understood them and the collaboration of creative minds was a marriage made in heaven. They understood how to get the best out of their artists and were sympathetic to their needs, and artists invariably need! They didn’t force them to deliver records to satisfy their timelines and by a certain date to satisfy quarterley sales figures. They allowed them the time to make the right record…what creative process can produce thgeir best work that way? Nobody said to Picasso, paint..he just painted. You signed an artist because they had talent not because they could meet deadlines. The irony was that if they delivered a substandard record they sent them back to make a better one, so what was the point anyway ?

There wasn’t the huge turnover of staff either, they had the right people doing the right jobs, no more , no less. Somehow over the years record companies lost their way, they expanded, made mistakes but couldn’t accept that they had made those mistakes and started to unceremoniously dump everyone in order to have a more streamlined operation. In doing that they lost the very core of those people who made it work in the first place.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Journey Through The Past, mistakes, Risk, A and M, Add new tag, Chris Blackwell, downsizing in the music business, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, Island Records, mistakes, tony michaelides

Tony Wilson, once seen never forgotten.

Part of my brief at Island Records was to try and secure TV performances and video showings of the acts I represented. During my time as a salesman for Transatlantic and ABC Records, I had watched Tony Wilson’s career blossom from aspiring journalist and local news presenter to being pushed to the forefront in Granada TV’s quest to give Top of the Pops, the BBC’s flagship pop show a run for their money….well that was the original plan anyway! Granada’s boss David Plowright was fan of Tony’s and thought he was the man for the job. I agreed with him completely, he was the perfect person to front such a brave challenge, and Granada were the perfect TV company to take on the BBC..

 

Local television and more specifically local news programs weren’t known for championing any type of new or even established music in those days, they were just that, local news…….. but Granada has always been at the forefront when it came to being a little more adventurous. It was they who a decade earlier thought it might be a good idea to put this interesting bunch of Liverpool lads on the box, a parade of moptops called The Beatles……and a guy back then Johnny Hamp took the kind of chance no one would ever dare to today.

 

Tony Wilson to a great many of people in the north west of England was a love, hate type of guy. The first time I saw him on my local news show he made me smile, made me giggle, there was something about him that was entertaining. He was very personable too when he acknowledged me at the Marley show back in 1975. Even back then when celebrity was really only used to describe The Beatles, The Stones and Hollywood I could see how people would leer at him, shout insults and obscenities….he was our own ‘celebrity’ He had a look and a way about him that impressed some and pissed off others.  Certain characters would make a point of pulling away from their own crowd and go up to him purely to tell him they thought he was crap….why because he was on TV and they weren’t? In fact in knowing Tony for nearly 30 years I can honestly say I never heard anyone say he was OK! If you asked people what they thought of him it would be ‘He’s great, our Toe’ or ‘I hate the bastard’ I think he loved that, the fact that everyone had an opinion about him. He was never ‘Tony who?’ and never should he have been.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, Risk, About Tony Michaelides, BBC Top of the pops, Granada TV, Island Records, tony wilson